The Best-Laid Plan: Too Bad It Flopped

NY TIMES ^ | 09/1102005 | David Brooks

[samkatz]

Among the many achievements of the human race - Chartres Cathedral, the Mona Lisa - surely the New Orleans emergency preparedness plan must rank among the greatest... The plan (which is viewable online at www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26) begins with the insight: Be prepared. Or as the plan puts it, "Individuals with assigned tasks must receive preparatory training to maximize operations."

[samkatz]

Brooks would only pass as a "conservative" at the NYTimes.

Best thing about this column is his link to the New Orleans Disaster Plan. Frankly, I've never seen it linked before.(I'm sure it's somewhere in FR if I looked) Basically, they didnt follow one point of this plan.

I'm sure the last point of this plan was already taken off the website "If we act like incompetent morons, blame George Bush"

[BenLurkin]

Bump

[technomage]

Basically, they didnt follow one point of this plan.

That's because of the typical liberal thought system:

"Well, our intentions were good. We intended to follow a comprehensive evacuation plan. So we didn't follow it. We had good intentions!"

[ASA Vet]

link

Yes it's been on FR, check keyword ANNEXI

[ncountylee]

"government managed to fail at every level."

democrat mantra to follow.

[ASA Vet]

The first post I know of it's posting, (because I did it) was on Sept 2nd.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475657/posts?page=88#88

[frankjr]

"government managed to fail at every level."

Maybe. Definitely at the local and state level. If it didn't fail at the first level (Mayor evacuting city according to his own emergency plan) we would had to worry about the state level. The Fed assists only. But unfortunately to the lack of leaders at the local and state level the Fed had to take a bigger role that they were not designed to handle (but the Dims will try to "fix" that buy increasing government...maybe each citizen will be a assigned a personnel FEMA member).

[MEG33]

"So of course we need limited but energetic government. But liberals who think this disaster is going to set off a progressive revival need to explain how a comprehensive governmental failure is going to restore America's faith in big government."

The lefty libs think it will work if the right person is charge.
They will never let go of the dream...just as the communists think communism failed because of who was in charge.

[ncountylee]

"The lefty libs think it will work if the right person is charge.

They will never let go of the dream...just as the communists think communism failed because of who was in charge."

Very well stated.

[jennyp]

Furthermore, the plan instructs the O.E.P. director to execute Mass Casualty Incidents scenarios; work with the Association of Contingency Planners and other groups to coordinate disaster organization responses; coordinate, facilitate and encourage other agencies to conduct emergency self-assessments; engage in assessment processes in preparation for the Agency Disaster Report; and produce after-action reports with the O.E.P. shelter coordinator in conjunction with the Louisiana Statewide Hurricane Exercise.

The paper flow must have been magnificent! The quality of the facilitating must have been surpassed only by the magnificence of the interfacing!

LOL!

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

The Best-Laid Plan: Too Bad It Flopped

The plan flopped? err I don't think so. People flopped. In particular Blanco and Nagin.

FEMA needs to have authority to usurp local inept and obstructionist officials. FEMA is a coordinating agency with little actual power if the Governor refuses to be coordinated.

FEMA must adopt the rule: Lead, follow or get out of the way.

[DCPatriot]

bump!

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Every organization, large or small, confronts this problem. Do we change the plan, procedures, org charts etc. Or do we fire lousy people and replace them with good people.

Unfortunately most organizations opt for rearranging deck chairs instead of firing the inept.

NOLA has historically attracted the most corrupt and incompetent officials imaginable.

[Condor51]

MAYOR RAY (the last) by Willy Shakespeare
Act 5. Scene IV
SCENE IV. Another part of the city.

~~snip~~
MAYOR RAY:
"A plan! a plan! my city for a plan!"

CATESBY:
"Withdraw, my lord Mayor; I'll help you to a 'plan'."

MAYOR RAY (the last):
"Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die:
I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
A plan! a plan! my kingdom for a plan!"

[Condor51]

For want of a PLAN the mayor was lost.
For want of a Mayor a city was lost.
For want of a city the Governor was lost.
For want of the Governor the state was lost.
For want of the state FEMA got lost.

And all for the want of a mayor with a plan.

[Wonder Warthog]

"FEMA needs to have authority to usurp local inept and obstructionist officials. FEMA is a coordinating agency with little actual power if the Governor refuses to be coordinated. FEMA must adopt the rule: Lead, follow or get out of the way."

Disagree completely. The Founding Fathers instituted a Federalist system for a reason, and I'd like to keep it. Implementing your way of thinking and we would rapidly become the "United Soviet States of America". The local government of N.O. and the state government of Louisiana screwed up, and the voters of those states got what they voted for. As best I can tell from limited coverage, neither comparable level of government screwup existed in either Mississippi or Alabama.

[linkinpunk]

IV. DRILLS, EXERCISES TRAINING SESSIONS

"The City of New Orleans government will conduct at least one functional or full scale training exercise annually, which will test the response capabilities of all functions of city government, as well as the private organizations, Parish school system and other agencies required to respond to disasters."

Hmmmm. How many years has Nagin been Mayor and how many full scale training exercises has he conducted?

[linkinpunk]

IV. DRILLS, EXERCISES TRAINING SESSIONS

"The City of New Orleans government will conduct at least one functional or full scale training exercise annually, which will test the response capabilities of all functions of city government, as well as the private organizations, Parish school system and other agencies required to respond to disasters."

Hmmmm. How many years has Nagin been Mayor and how many full scale training exercises has he conducted?

[linkinpunk]

V. TASKS

A. Mayor
* Initiate the evacuation.
* Retain overall control of all evacuation procedures via EOC operations.
* Authorize return to evacuated areas.

[Thebaddog]

Eggszactly. I saw the mayor on MTP this morning and Tim, the rock star, was pressing about details of the plan. Nagin blew right by the details. The Mayor really is an affirmative action hire. The details were not discussed, it was only to get to higher ground and wait for the cavalry to arrive. Whadda mope.